Latest articles & site news

This be a major event. Recently, I have retired a total of four laptops used for testing and reviews,
including the well-known T61 and T400 machines. This means I needed a new computer to do all my Linux installs
and such. Ergo, Lenovo G50.

We will continue using the older LG hardware, as it comes with the Nvidia card, so it's still useful in that
regard, despite its age and weak specs. But most of my distro testing will now focus on this brand new
beastling, and there's cardinal importance here, because we're talking UEFI, Secure Boot and whatnot. If you
thought my reviews were complicated and brutal, wait till we get started with these new so-called evil
technologies. Anyhow, let's begin. First things first. An overview of what Lenovo G50 can do.

It's time to continue our Eurotrip thingie. The last time, we did a solid 2,000-km trip in eight days round
Croatia in Opel Insignia estate. Now, we will pick up the baton with Ford C-Max, a compact five-door, five-seat
family MPV, powered by a 1.6-liter Duratorq TDCi engine. Location? South of Italy, from Rome to Salerno and back,
in six days, with a total of 1,164 km of roads covered. Oh naturally, we drove down the famous Amalfi coast road.

So let's take a look at what Italy has to offer, with its average-speed camera-clocked three-lane highways,
narrow-shoulder 80 km/h motorways and B roads, ultra-tight and curvy coastline tarmac looking down at some
rather scenic little towns where no parlo Inglese, and finally, some proper and totally insane town driving. As
bas as rumored? We will see.

If you've followed my Windows 10 Preview articles, including the almost latest Build 9926 edition, then you
know there's a bit of a problem. It has to do with the system search functionality. It does not show in the menu
anymore. Instead, it's integrated into the taskbar, and you get forced advertising and suggestions there, at
least at the moment. This may yet change in the official version.

If you turn Cortana on, you can get away from that, but you need an online account. Then, you can disable the
new search, and you will have a popdown search field in the menu, and this is both ugly and inefficient. You
want to solve this by using Classic Shell, a super cool menu program for Windows 8 and friends. In fact, it's
the program that makes Windows 8 usable. Only in some situations, it may not be installable on Windows 10. If
you have been affected, please glimpse here. P.S. Build 10041 review coming soon.

Netrunner 15 Prometheus is the last edition of the Ubuntu-based branch of the Netrunner family, as opposed
to the rolling siblings that come with more Archy and Manjaroy DNA. While the release itself definitely begs
attention and review, what makes it special is the fact it's the first distro, that I know of, to officially
feature Plasma 5 as its desktop.

So we will be testing, not only the desktop itself, but also the new environment. We will be doing that on my
older LG laptop. But the beauty there is that it comes with the Nvidia graphics card, so it should be extra
interesting. Please follow me.

All right. As you can see, we are past the official end date for the competition, and yet, it is still
running. There are two good reasons for this. One, I have tardied a bit sending the physical copies to readers,
because I have myself received them late. Therefore, I want to give people more time to finish the books.

Two, so far, eleven people have pledged their hearts and minds to the competition, but only two have writ their
reviews online. Hurry up folks. This is a gentle reminder to get underway with my prose. Three, most
importantly, Ubuntu phone is a reality now. Which means one thing.

Several days ago, we talked about how Plasma 5 is awesome, and how it's the cure to all worries in this
world, particularly those related to aesthetics, functionality and desktops. All fanboyism aside, Plasma shapes
up to become the most modern and relevant Linux desktop environment, with a very intelligent sense of order and
efficiency not seen elsewhere.

So I've shown you a whole bunch of cool things, but how some more cool things? In this guide, I will reveal a
few hacks that can make you happier and more productive with Plasma. Sure, you can explore on your own, and
experienced users probably won't find this piece remarkable, but for new users and fresh Windows converts, this
article is like someone holding your hand during your first trip to Tijuana, Mexico.

It has been a long while since I've last played with Lubuntu. My Ocelot review was not very favorable.
While LXDE did kind of work, it failed to impress me. It also failed to cause the disruptive change, either by
dislodging the big, supposedly heavy desktop environments like Unity and Gnome 3, or by stopping the development
of rebellious successors.

Naturally, it comes down to the desktop setup, because Ubuntu is Ubuntu. As we've seen not that long back, LXQt
came to replace it, but then it did not. LXDE lives on, and it graces a bunch of desktops. Then again, Lubuntu
does not seem to work as expected, because there's LXLE Linux building upon its flaws, making them less.
Indeed, today, we shall see how well Lubuntu Utopic stacks against the original version, as well as LXLE. And
in general, we must not forget the crucial existential question of necessity for lightweight desktops, given
the presence of the likes of Xfce and MATE, both adorning Ubuntu. Follow me please.

This is going to be a very weird tutorial, today. Namely, we will fix a problem with the Virtualbox startup
by using something approaching magic. Indeed, the issue you are facing reads as follows. Recently, you've
upgraded your Virtualbox installation to version 4.X or something. Then, all of a sudden, it no longer starts.
Instead, it throws an error.

The error message reads something like CERT_E_REVOCATION_FAILURE, and you feel like slitting your wrists. But
don't. Let me show you how this kind of problem is debugged properly and smartly, and it will also give you
insight into a hundred other, similar phenomena you may encounter. It's also a good lesson in Windows command
line.

Brace yourselves. This is the very first time ever that Dedoimedo reviews an Apple product. Now, I am
familiar with Apple hardware, and my various family members have been using tons of them over the years. However,
I have never really spent any serious time fiddling with any of these. Now that my friend has loaned me his Apple
TV appliance, I must.

Anyhow, my quest for the ultimate home media player continues. So far, nothing really fits the bill. On the
software side, XBMC might be the desired software component, but neither the RaspBMC nor openELEC really wowed
me, especially when paired with the Raspberry Pi board, price and functionality wise. The same goes for
Rikomagic and Chromecast. When it comes to watching TV, I just use whatever smartness my LG box has to offer,
out of the box [sic]. Maybe Apple TV could make it happen? Let's see.

Being a fanboy always helps when you want to draw attention to your articles, and in this, it's my turn to
sound all gooey, agog and completely enamored by Plasma 5, the next generation of the KDE desktop framework. But
the thing is, the more I'm using it, the more I'm loving it. Which is why I couldn't leave you with just the
overview from several weeks back.

I spent several more days playing with Kubuntu Vivid dev branch, testing Plasma, to see what more it can do.
Sure, there are bugs and niggles, the repositories are sometimes quite slow and bits and pieces go missing, so
you have to wait a few hours or days before you can have a successful update cycle. Some of the functions still
do not work, some work inadequately, there are visual inconsistencies and other problems. But all in all,
Plasma is progressing nicely, and it's about to kick some major ass very soon. Let me show you. A sample of
what I had the pleasure of doing one Saturday evening.

Ubuntu derivatives are many and varied. Most build on the same base, and then add a new work environment in
order to infuse the distro with a unique spin. LXLE 14.04.1 does this by applying an almost namesake desktop
environment on the latest LTS Ubuntu release, and so a new fork is born.

Is this any good, you may ask? Well, that's a good question. We shall soon find out. My test will take place on
a T61 machine, with its two SSD and Intel graphics. Rejoice, for the laptop is soon going to be retired, and we
will have a brand new machine take its place. Let us begin.

Several weeks back, I reviewed AOMEI Partition Assistant, a pretty decent disk and partition management
software. Now, I am going to do it again, test and review another program designed to make the disk handling
tasks easier for Windows folks. This one is called MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Much like before, I was contacted by the vendor and asked to check their product. And so here we are. I will
try to avoid too many comparisons to AOMEI or GParted, but it is inevitable. Tested, version 8.1.1,
professional edition. Let's go.

You all know I simply love the ArmA franchise. It all started with Operation Flashpoint, the most legendary
first person shooter ever conceived by human race. By a twist of ultra-uber-super serious Soviet-inspired Czech
no-Hollywood-nonsense magic, Bohemia Interactive makes computer games that are simply nine orders of magnitude
above all and everything else. Beware, though. Once you've played one of Bohemia's splendid titles, you will
never, ever be able to even remotely enjoy silly arcades, for as long as you're alive.

I've written many articles and reviews of the ArmA family games, and you are most welcome to take a look at all
of them. But that's not the reason why we are here. The reason is, Andrew Gluck, also known as Dslyecxi, a
former US marine who has compiled the most thorough tactical guides on ArmA. He may yet discover that I have
decided to dedicate an entire article to his work, and indeed, let's explore the finest piece of the ArmA bible
out there.

Linux Deepin is a Chinese penguin product, built on top of Ubuntu and using its own desktop environment,
which, well, no matter what you say or think, is based on Gnome 3. My previous experience with the distribution
was extremely positive, and I really liked the art work, the special touch and approach to old, proven ideas.
While such attempts are usually doomed to fail, Deepin rallied and delivered.

Now, it's time for another round of testing, with the latest edition 2014.2. We will be doing the standard
quad-boot game, with an aging but raging T61 plus Intel graphics and SSD. Indeed, let's see.

Every few months or years, a new desktop environment is born in the Linux world, sometimes as an act of
rebellion, also known as cutlery (forking), sometimes in order to replace an outgoing technology, and sometimes
because. Several days ago, I came across Budgie, a new project and the flagship desktop for the Evolve OS Linux
distribution. In general, Evolve OS is a brand new operating system. Rumors tell it has some roots in Gentoo,
Pardus and friends.

We are going to discuss the latter at a later time, but for now, it is time to explore Budgie. It is based on
Gnome, so it should not be a complete stranger. Anyhow, baby steps, beta, so everything you see and hear today
must be taken with a big, fat disclaimer. Tested from a Ubuntu PPA on an existing, running instance of Utopic.

That time again. We're adding excellent new content to the slowly but surely growing list of the greatest
sites on the Internet, as judged by your significant brother, me. And like the last time, we are verging into the
realm of foreign languages, so you might have to exercise your translator skills. To wit, Heise Online, a site
dedicated to popular technology, operating systems, three-letter agency news, and such.

The second one is LWN.net, a geeky yet visually unassuming portal of Linux stuff. Written in English, it will
trouble you less vis-a-vis translations, but it should provide you with a decent, balanced dose of highly
in-depth articles on kernel internals, software reviews, free software discussion, security updates, and such.
Quite useful. Enjoy.

Your problem might be as follows. You have recently upgraded your Windows 10 Preview to the new Build 9926,
and all of a sudden, network shares, like other Windows machines you may have in your environment, are no longer
accessible. Best of all, they worked fine right up until the upgrade.

I have outlined this issue in my review, and now, I'm sharing the promised tutorial that solves the problem.
Get it? Sharing. I'm sharing a solution to a sharing problem. That's so damn witty. Now, follow me.

LibreOffice is the flagship office suite for Linux. It's also quite popular with Windows users. As a free,
open-source and cross-platform solution, LibreOffice allows people to enjoy the world of writing, spreadsheets,
presentations and alike without having to spend hefty sums of money. The only problem till now was that it didn't
quite work as advertised. Microsoft Office support was, for the lack of a better word, lacking.

Version 4.4 is out, and it promises a great deal. A simplified interface, new looks, much improved proprietary
file format support. Sounds exciting, and as someone who has lambasted LibreOffice for this very reason in the
past, I felt compelled to give this new edition its due rightful try. On top of Plasma 5 no less. So let's see.

Several days ago, we had the extra long and beautiful Eurotrip article. And while we did review Opel
Insignia, that's Vauxhall for you Brits and colonists, we did not really review the car. We focused on the road
and driving conditions and how well the car blended into the environment. Now, we shall rectify this.

To wit, here's a proper car review, which mostly ignores how red sunsets are in certain parts of the world, the
speed limits on highways, but in a safe way, and other conditions that bring out the inner child in you. We
will do the interior and exterior expose, then delve deeper into problems, comfort, price, options, and such.
Then, finally, we will revisit the driving part, but without repeating ourselves or being boring. Follow me.

Back in 2011, I wrote my global warming article, calling it what it is. Bollocks. I received a fair dose of
flak for my insight, as some of my readers found my skepticism regarding the human-inflicted increase in
temperature on a global scale too much to handle.

In early February 2015, articles started floating around the Web, talking about the greatest scientific scandal
of all time. The topic? Global warming. Or rather, artificial tampering with data points collected by numerous
weather stations round the world, in order to create the necessary trends that prove the planet is heating up
as a result of human-generated carbon emissions. Oops. I wrote back then that it isn't all scientific. Indeed,
when people make changes to numbers, it isn't science. And yes, as always, I'm 100% right.

Remember my XMBC tests on top of a Raspberry Pi board? Good. Last year, after purchasing my LG smart TV, I
started playing with various low-cost appliances, trying to find the optimal hardware and software set for a home
media center. In the end, I chose nothing, because the television itself is good enough for all my daily needs.
Now, though, a couple of my friends have loaned me their stuff, including Apple TV, Chromecast and Odroid. Yay, I
have friends! Just kidding. Imaginary friends.

We will begin with Chromecast. This is a tiny, low-cost HDMI dongle, designed to transform your regular TV into
a smart, network-capable device. For only USD35, you get a media player that can stream all sorts of contents
from your mobile devices and computers directly onto the large screen. Sounds cool, so let's see what gives.

An interesting moment, don't you think, the official announcement by the Document Foundation about the
availability of LibreOffice for Android. Now, this is only a beta, and this is only a viewer, allowing you to
read but not yet create office documents on an Android device. Like they say in The Wheel of Time series, it was
a beginning.

A full suite is planned much later down the road. But for now, you can test the Viewer. The application is
available in the Play Store, and side by side with the remote control Android utility for LibreOffice Impress,
it gives you an early set of official tools for the most popular open-source and free office suite out there. I
did my share of testing and screenshots. Just a sampling, but let's see.

So far, I've interested you with a very long review of Windows 10 Preview Build 9926, which brings
Halo-game Cortana nerdonics to your desktop. Imagine that, geeks getting all shivery by listening to a slightly
robotic female voice. Oh, the subtle pointlessness of human existence.

I want to explore this technology some more, because it's not just about AI and voice search and other
buzzwords like cloud. It's also about the future direction of operating systems and somewhat forced integration
of moronity and remote computation into your everyday devices. Internet of Things (IoT) becoming Idiots of
Tomorrow (IoT). Let's see if there's any merit to a digital woman bossing you around.

Today is going to be an exciting day. We will be testing the official release of Plasma, on top of an early
version of Kubuntu. This shall be a teaser of what we might expect to see in April. Given my excellent experience
with a beta release on top of Utopic last year, my hopes and expectations are very high.

Plasma 5 has the potential to revitalize the Linux world, it's that important and meaningful. Of course, we
must not forget that applications play their critical role, but if you need to sell your product, the first
look, the very first impression is important. And in that regard, Plasma has everything to gain and lose. After
what happened with Gnome, it's the one remaining bastion of sanity in the Linux desktop world. And so we begin.

The phrase Eurotrip hints heavily at some kind of a trip across Europe. Which is exactly what we are going
to do, only on a smaller scale. We won't roam across the whole continent surely. We will do less. A single
country. In Opel Insignia 2.0 CDTI ecoFlex estate edition.

The country of choice is Croatia, with eight days and 1,977 km traveled on pay-to-use highways, B roads, C
roads, macadams, country lanes, twisty serpentines, seaside magistrales, coastal cities with the unblemished
charm of Austro-Hungarian rule and Italian terracota rooftops. In later articles, we will follow up with some
German and Italian experience. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's see what gives here.

Today, I am going to write this fine, negative review of the latest Far Cry release, because I have paid
USD59.99 for the title, just a day before the big Christmas sale and thus missed the 20% off promo, and because
it's not worth its price tag, as you shall soon discover.

Anyhow, I did pretty much the same mistake as with Call of Duty, another super overrated shooter. Just like
back then, after purchasing my latest high-end laptop, I kind of got enthusiastic about playing several fresh
games, and against my better judgment and experience, I actually read some of those rave reviews praising Far
Cry 4 and its open-ended nature and elephants and such, and decided to give it a try. End result, this article.

As you know, I have already reviewed Windows 10 a while back, and I liked it. Which meant I wasn't
expecting to spend too much time fiddling with the latest release of the preview build, numbered 9926, when it
came out in late January. And yet, I found myself hands deep in testing and troubleshooting, and this is the
first of many articles on the topic.

This new edition brings us that much closer to what the official product ought to look like. On paper, it
sounds glamorous. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and above, you get Cortana integrated in your
desktop, and other cool tricks. Enough to convince people that Microsoft is back on its feet. Truth to be told,
I did purchase some of its shares, but if you expect bias in this article, you're wrong. I'm going to praise
and then lambaste Windows 10. While the reaction is not going to be as cheerful as my Windows 8 reviews, it
gets close enough. A doomsday warning. Now read.

They are all nicely tucked away in their respective categories. Perhaps you might fancy starting a search with
whatever strikes your mind? For example, type Linux to find all Linux-related items on Dedoimedo. Good luck!

Welcome!

Dedoimedo offers the most detailed guides and articles on a wide range of topics, including Linux and Windows,
security, virtualization, hardware, and so much more. Step by step, laced with humor and wit. There's something
for everyone, from newbies to experts.

You also get computer games, car reviews, 3D art, popular physics, life philosophy, and a bit more. Hopefully
you'll learn something new.